Wireless communication devices are incredibly widespread in today's society. For example, people use cellular phones, smart phones, personal digital assistants, laptop computers, pagers, tablet computers, etc. to send and receive data wirelessly from countless locations. Wireless communication devices are typically served by base transceiver stations (BTSs). With numerous users served by a single BTS, noise and interference between the mobile devices and the BTS as well as with other signals make the transmission of information more difficult, e.g., to transmit the data accurately. Further, the noise and interference reduce the throughput of the wireless communication systems, e.g., due to omni-directional transmission in which each device contributes to the noise of its counterparts.
One technique employed currently for helping to reduce the noise and interference and increase data throughput in wireless communication networks is to beam form from the BTS. In this technique, an antenna beam from the BTS is produced in a direction for a particular wireless communication device in order to use a higher directivity antenna pattern, thereby allowing a reduction in transmission power and a reduction in noise and interference for communications or data transmission from the BTS to a particular mobile device.
Another technique to combat noise and interference is to use a mechanically steered antenna. In this example, the antenna can be physically moved at the BTS to point in a desired direction, e.g., toward a satellite.
Another technique to combat noise and interference is to use a mechanically steered antenna. In this example, the antenna can be physically moved at the BTS to point in a desired direction, e.g., toward a satellite.
Another technique for combating interference is to use multiple input and multiple output antennas. The use of multiple antennas on both the transmission and receiving ends allows multiple signals to be combined to provide a combined signal that can be processed to help eliminate the noise and interference effects.